A Day to Remember
by lonely.silence
Summary: In honor of James Potter's birthday, a oneshot of how James and Lily fell in love. Many years ago today, March 27th, was a day to remember.


**In honor of James Potter's birthday, here's a short story to salute his wonderful hotness (And charm. And brains. And that sexy hair...). Short and sweet; enjoy! (Originally posted on March 27th, his actual birthday)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

James sighed.

It was his eighteenth birthday.

Of course, this should have been a jolly occasion, yes? But James Potter found himself cooped up in the Astronomy tower, huddled in a corner. His wild black hair scrunched against the cold wall, as his pensive thoughts swam through randomly. There was a party in the common room at that very moment, while McGonagall was grading papers, ignorant of the underage drinking and rowdy behavior. So why, do you ask, was the cause of all this celebrating sitting up in a tower, staring up at the stars?

Reader, have you ever been in love? James Potter was. For the past five years, James had been after one girl, and one girl only, unaware of the hoards of girls running after him in the halls. Lily Evans was her name. She had flaming red hair and beautiful jade eyes. She was brilliant and intuitive, except for when it came to James Potter. She failed to see the love in his eyes, the intention of his actions, which usually ended up as inaudible grunts and strange gestures.

But, it just so happened that the day before, Lily had her first epiphany. She had been sitting under a tree, thinking about strawberries on toast, when the thought came barreling out of the sky.

She loved him.

But how would she tell him? She was faced with this quandary, engulfing most of her evening. That was when she found Sirius.

"_Hey, Evans. What're you thinking about so hard? Looks as if you could break a blood vessel," Sirius had come barging into the head's dormitories, looking for James._

"_No... no, that's not it," Lily was perched on the couch, staring at her toes with a determined expression. In fact, she had not even heard what Sirius had said. She just discarded her latest idea, which dealt with flying raccoons and furry scarves._

"_Lily?" Sirius's voice turned to one of concern as he noticed the lack of attention. Grinning, he pounced on the couch, straddling her legs. With a yelp, Lily finally noticed him._

"_Dear—, Oh, Sirius, you scared the pants off of me!" Lily reprimanded him with a frown._

"_James wouldn't like that very much, you know," he grinned. What he saw next threw his thoughts out the window. Lily's eyes had glazed over at the mention of her lover's—though James didn't know it yet—name. _

_Curious, Sirius ventured further. "Y'know, James has seven toes on one feet and eats through his nose." He quickly peeked to see if his untrue words had any affect on the redhead before him._

_To his great satisfaction, Lily barely acknowledged the fact, giving a small "hmm."_

_Sirius could see the love in her eyes as she gazed off into the foggy haze outside the clear window. His heart leapt. Perhaps his friend's wishes weren't too extreme._

"_Merlin... you like James now, don't you Lily?"_

"_Sorry?" Lily's head snapped up at the mention of James._

"_You like James, do you not?" _

"_I'd say that's an understatement," she stared far off into space._

Lily, with the help of Sirius, had come up with an ingenious plan to reveal her feelings to James.

Yet it was James who sat in the tower. James whose heart was broken.

Earlier that day, everything had started out well.

"_Prongs!" an excited voice sounded near James's ear. "Prongs, wake up!"_

"_Grrway," James murmured, his version of saying, "Go away."_

_Peter became the form of a rat, as he did once a month, and landed on James's pillow. His small teeth bit into James's nose gently, still causing an irritating sting to James._

"_Alright! I'm awake, I'm awake...," James pushed Peter off of him and onto the floor, where he resumed his regular form. When James grabbed his glasses and shoved them on his nose, a huge explosion of light and color erupted before his eyes. Small figures of seductive women, about three centimeters tall each, pranced around him, up his shoulders and entangling themselves in his hair. Sirius was grinning at him. _

"_This is Rita," he smiled, holding up a particularly bubbly brunette in his hand._

_They skipped down the stairs three minutes later, all prepared to go to the Great Hall. Lily was sitting on a crimson couch, reading a large book. She didn't as much as look up when he came. Though she wished to, she refrained._

_A small ache hit James in the stomach when she did not respond to his presence. Surely she would wish him a happy birthday? The twinge grew as he and his friends pranced down the corridors._

_He ignored it, though, and continued with his meal. Throughout the day, he dreamed of Lily during classes and chatted with his friends absently. Then, James and Lily's only class together came around the corner. She was sitting in her normal seat, looking lovely as ever. There was a sparkle about her, an aura of something that was indecipherable. But she never turned toward him, not allowing a single glance to him._

_The pain below his stomach twisted even more. Who knew love could be so painful?_

The night at the party was the worst of all. Lily wasn't there. James didn't know that she was up in her room, encouraging herself to go down and tell James how she felt. It had been Sirius's idiotic idea to make her ignore him throughout the day. "Build up the suspense, yeah?" He had said. "He'll be so surprised, won't know what hit him." She didn't even know why she had done it. It had made sense earlier, but the logistics to it now seemed incredibly stupid. Why would she ever want to disregard him on his _birthday?_ Shouldn't it be better to tell him at daybreak and spend a wonderful day with him? Plucking up her courage, she left a parchment on her bedside, dictating the correct way to tell him. By the time she had gone downstairs, James was gone.

"_What?" Lily said._

"_He's gone," Sirius repeated again._

"_Where'd he go?"_

"_Dunno."_

"_Ugh! I _knew_ this was a stupid idea, Sirius," she sighed. "I should have just told him yesterday. Now I don't even know where he's gone..."_

_Lily slumped against a wall, unconsciously mirroring James's exact position at the time, and buried her face in her hands. _Oh, God,_ she thought, _What have I done? Now I shall never tell him...

_Sirius left her at that moment. He climbed of the stairs quickly, and threw open the door to his room. As quickly as he was able, he began disrupting the peaceful stacks of papers and books and other objects for the purpose of amusement. Underneath many piles of clothing, he found what he was looking for. _

_Long creases crisscrossed over the paper, the edges wearing down to a soft, frayed edge. _

"_I solemnly swear I am up to no good."_

_The parchment blossomed with sharp lines and ribbons of ink. Labels and dots swarmed in areas, gliding about the castle. Up in the Astronomy tower, one particularly dull dot was labeled "James Potter" remained unmoving._

_With a small murmur, Sirius extinguishing the map that contained the secrets of Hogwarts. Hastily, he shoved it in his robe pocket, gripping it unconsciously._

_When he came back down to Lily, he laid his hand her shoulder. _

"_He's in the Astronomy tower." _

_She paused, unsure of how he would know that. When she realized what he had said, a small smile stretched back over her teeth. Throwing her arms around Sirius's neck, she murmured a quick thank you and rushed out the portrait hole, her back falling victim to many envious glares of Sirius's enthusiasts._

"James?"

He looked up at the face he had missed all day, slightly surprised at the urgent tone in her voice. He didn't say anything, still down from her treatment to him. Quietly, he observed her curiously. Her hair was disheveled, small flyaway hairs sticking straight up, as if she had been pulling at it and messing with it all day. She discarded her robe, probably for the party, leaving her in a soft jumper. One of the sleeves was rolled up, while the other remained straight across her arm. Her toes were touching, a birdlike stance, awkwardly fidgeting.

"James... I, um, came here...," Lily trailed off, breath shaking. She looked toward the floor, quite interested in a particular spot as she blushed furiously. She put her hands over her face, hanging her head. "Merlin... I think I love you James."

Though her voice was muffled, James still heard what she said. He was shocked, for one thing. She loved him? His mind skimmed over every part of his life that had merely a glimpse of Lily Evans. Her stepping vehemently on his toe. With a withering glare, she had poked him in the eye after he had accidentally tripped over a bump in the rug, landing on one Lily Evans. How had these detestable actions transformed into _love_?

Lily mistook his silence for rejection. So he had finally moved on, after the four years of biting words and cruel intentions.

Ah, but this, Reader, is where Lily was wrong. What would you have done if one you loved said that they loved you after five and a half years? James couldn't stop running that sentence over and over and over. It was too good for James to think was true.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," she gasped, turning toward the door, and opening it. By this time, tears were steadily trickling down the sides of her face.

"Wait, Lily!" James stood, and crossed the room quickly, grabbing her hand. Her soft skin, unapproachable territory until then, was soft beneath his fingers, which tentatively stroked her.

She turned to him, tears dripping beneath her chin and dripping to the stone floor.

"Oh, no... don't cry, Lily," he picked up her hand and began kissing each of her fingers. "I... I've just never expected you to say—"

Lily cut him off by hiding her face into the soft robes clothing James. He was still clutching her hand, rubbing soothing geometric shames into her palm with his pinkie. Slowly, he disentangled his hand from hers and encircled her waist, clutching her close. They stood that way, peaceful and content, for endless hours, seemingly minutes for the two. Arms laced around each other, holding so close a person so dear.

And that, Reader, is how James Potter and Lily Evans fell deeply in love.

"Oh, James?"

"Yes, love?"

"Sorry I didn't get you a birthday present."


End file.
